Abstract

Abstract. Many organisations are seeking to improve their competitiveness through the use of information technology. The industrial strength hypermedia approach to information management and delivery allows a single multimedia resource base to be used for a range of applications, and permits a user to have controlled access to the required information, in an easily accessible and structured mariner. The development of an industrial hypermedia application requires the adoption of procedures for system design, authoring, and delivery. This paper presents a design model that allows the structured development of industrial strength hypermedia. The authoring approach adopted at Southampton is discussed in this paper, and includes the use of Modular Hypermedia Applications and clustering to reduce authoring effort. This approach to information management is illustrated by the development of a large-scale hypermedia information system for Pirelli Cables Ltd, Southampton, UK. In order to assess user. acceptance, trials have been undertaken, the results of which are presented.